never forget

taken on feb 25, 2007. i was really irritated at a person who contributes to our paper who said nothing had changed in the 20 years after the EDSA people power revolution. WRONG! Freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, your freedom to bitch all came from the bravery of heroes like my parents who faced down the tanks in a time before texting and live broadcast from CNN.

doodles from the past

Sorry I haven't blogged for a long time. It's because of the evil of the internet. All my free time is consumed by my obsession with this forbidden fruit called---free tv! Yes, I've been watching episodes of my favorite American shows online, from Family Guy to Ugly Betty. They sometimes take a while to load so I fill the time doodling some characters I created when I was in high school including this:

For the first time online, may I introduce my Justice League!Arkipelago! It's really my take on Darna and Captain Barbell plus some characters inspired by the Phoenix, the Flash and ninjas. In my comic book, Fil-Jap twins and scientists/entrepreneurs tap the rest of the gang to serve as a super hero strike force to combat bad guys that the police can't handle. The end of book 1 had my Darna version called Nadine die trying to stop evil sorceress Maxara from opening a portal between her world and ours. (Uso kasi nun yung mga namamatay na superman, jean grey, etc.)
Book 2 was supposed to be an epic rescue of Nadine from the fairy world which lifted heavily from a book I read. But schoolwork and laziness eventually defeated me so that story never got told. That's why I admire one of my early mentors Tobie Abad for actually finishing his works and uploading them.

But the funniest thing happened while I was doodling. I suddenly remembered a hero I created before Arkipelago...a crime fighter inspired by presidential daughter Kris Aquino!!! I don't even know if she had an alias but I do know that she had a yellow battle suit with an L(as in Laban) logo. Note the lasso made out of barbed wire...very Edsa revolution/street protest fashion!

Suzu Kin

Last January, we said goodbye to one of our officemates. She had been with the company for 20 years and was finally convinced that it was time she prioritized her family. We were saddened by her news not only because she always brought fod with her, but also because in the short time we spent with her (she moved to our section barely a year ago) we found her to be genuinely delightful.

That's why for her despedida, we had not one, but 3 farewell dinners in her honor! The first one was a North Park feast at the office. Next was a late dinner at Suzu Kin. We just upped and went to the small resto tucked away in a little corner of Makati. The sign was rather small and the place wasn't fancy. The menu was written on folders posted on the wall and the serving dishes very plain. But the food was delectable and very affordable!For P110, you could have a sampler of tempura, tonkatsu and other specialties. May rice at miso soup pa!So if you're hankering for authentic Japanese food at reasonable prices, check it out!

Amici di Don Bosco

We finally got to eat at the Blog-famous Amici di Don Bosco in Makati. I went to school just beside that place when it was still a yucky cafeteria that served overcooked and bland spaghetti. Then my brother went to school in Don Bosco, too but we never ate there.
Fortunately, Jon's birthday came up and we wanted to try someplace new. And I'm glad we did! It's still a cafeteria style place but it's larger and better now. Apparently, an Italian priest took over the kitchen and decided to fill the menu with authentic Italian cuisine. At about P120 ($24) a plate it's cheaper than our usual restos but too costly to try everyday.
The place is always packed on weekdays when yuppies in ties fill up on either the pizza and pasta specialties or the Filipino rice meals which are always changed. I was surprised one Friday afternoon when I checked the place out. It was way past lunch but the place was still full!

Top to bottom: Pa's order, Montanara; My order was the Lasagna al Forno; Jon's was the Spinach Canneloni which he wasn't too happy with as it had no meat; Twink's order--the Seafood marinara. They all tasted good but the winner for me was the seafood pasta as the shellfish was really fresh. Jon also ordered a thin crust pizza. I had creamy tiramisu for dessert and they had the sinfully divine gelato/ice cream in hazelnut flavor.Mmmmm! So good I forgot to take a picture. (Nakalimutan ko ang pangalan ko sa sarap)

They also sell Italian chocolate and bread and panini. Unfortunately they are closed on Sundays.

magic?

Here's a magic moment my sister captured while I was at work on New Year's Day. Reminds me of Gob from the short-lived comedy 'Arrested Development'. He kept on saying 'I'm not a magician, I'm an ILLUSIONIST!'

Christmas in Pasay

Boring holiday , man!
I don’t know when it started, but Christmas with my father’s side of the family has always been a bit weird. There’s a reunion and lots of food and all but we do NOT open our gifts on Christmas Day! I think it was started by one of my uncles. He probably decreed that he wouldn’t be able to get his salary till the end of the month and so everyone else should also give their gifts on New Year’s day. It was so exasperating for me as a kid to see all those gifts bearing my name but I couldn’t even open on Christmas Day! I had to wait for a whole week while all the normal kids would be playing with their toys! Fortunately, ma and pa let us open their gifts to us but we’d always sneak a disgruntled glance at the shiny pile of boxes in the corner.
Naturally, this practice put a damper on the holiday and made New Year’s day seem like a more important celebration which really messed us up. Eventually, the other families started to wise up that there would be no toys given out on xmas so people who actually came to the reunion got fewer and fewer and the result was a rather corny xmas for kids.
New Year’s day meanwhile was a big event at the Rodriguez house. Aside from the opening of the gifts, there were raffles and paagaw (where my aunts would toss lots of coins in the air and we’d scramble to get as many as we could) Lately, however, even that event was getting a bit lackluster. Maybe it was because we weren’t as rich as before, or maybe because of some family drama, or the migration of some of our loved ones. But this year , I thought, should be fun again. I remembered how Tito Rene, who had just come home from Saudi then, enticed us to sing by promising a cash prize to the winner. So, I brought our dvd player which had a karaoke function and told my sister that there’d be a P500 prize for whoever would get the highest score. I had to go to work that day but my mom said it was one of the most fun holidays in years!

Like every typical Filipino family, ours loved singing! It lasted all the way to dinner time! That dvd player was worth every penny!
It’s really too bad I had to go to work. I missed some funny scenes. Usually, the kids get wrapped gifts. The teens get cash. When you graduate and start working, you stop getting gifts and it’s your turn to start giving. My cousin Arvin was giving out money to the kids in line when his daughter Anjeline cried out “Daddy tama na! Mauubos na pera natin!” (Stop Dad! We’re going to run out of money!) Another year, an older cousin didn’t have time to buy toys for the kids and gave away cash. His 2-year-old nephew, Angelo, didn’t know what money was and with a face filled with all the disdain an infant could muster, threw the bills back at my Kuya Monching!

thank you 2006!

A much delayed(thanks to that earthquake in Taiwan which slowed down asia's internet access) look back at the year that was.
-Finally went to Boracay
-learned Illustrator
-Spent more time with my Canadian relatives
-started blogging (and reading other people's blogs which is so time-consuming!)
-said goodbye to inaanak Gela, Francine, Keana and inaanak Kevvin :(
-Finished that humongous clan drawing(1 year in the making!)
-upgraded to a dvd-burning computer set up
-watched my first Imax movie
-lost some officemates to France and Taiwan
-discovered Dampa!
-went on a walking tour of Intramuros
-became a sleep-deprived commentator for classmates' wedding
-supertyphoon milenyo drenched all our plans for the reunion and showed us how dependent we are on technology
-surprised by all the gifts i got at xmas!

got my picture with Mau.YEY!

All in all it was a good year. Special mention must go to the time I spent with my tita chuchie and tita luday. Since Carlos Celdran of the Intramuros walking tour was away, i did my best to recreate the whole experience for my tita, though she did pose some tough questions i was unable to answer! So much to be thankful for! Ilook forward to a better year ahead brimming with endless possibilities!

Mau Marcelo

Congratulations to our first Philippine Idol: Mau Marcelo from Lucena City!!! This is a cartoon of her that first came out in the Inquirer.

Gilarmi Hotel

View of the other rooms at Gilarmi


My Tita Luday and her daughters stayed at Gilarmi because it was the only one I could find that would meet their requirements:
1) Affordable --P2200 per night for 3 people (includes buffet breakfast)
2) Near the malls (no need to take a jeep or taxi)
3) a kitchenette (in case they feel like cooking)
4) Swimming pool (Jasmine's request)

The pool

Other places like La Perla, BSA Mansion and City Garden were considered but price and location considerations prevailed. Also there were good reviews on virtualtourist.com

Living room

The bedroom

Well, here's the lowdown on Gilarmi. If you want a place that's affordable and spacious, this is for you.The 3 person room has a receiving area/living room, a bed area, a narrow kitchenette complete with ref and cooking utensils. There's a narrow space for storing your luggage, a small but clean toilet and a verandah facing the Glorietta mall. However,the place is rather old. It is evident in the furniture and especially the tv. Most everything needs a new paint job. There's a musty smell to the sofa and the aircon can get noisy. But the staff are pleasant and accommodating. My aunt later moved to a 1-bedroom when my cousins flew back to Canada. This room looked better maintained but the bed looked rather short.

The kitchenette

The toilet and shower area

Dampa

One of the best moments I spent with Tita Luday this year was when I tagged along her reunion with her Canada World Youth friends whom she hadn't seen in 30 years! Not only did I hear about Tita Luday and Oncle Michel's movie-worthy love story, I also got to eat at the Dampa.

Roughly translated as a "small place", the Dampa is a seafood market and a group of restaurants in one place. You go to the seafood market and choose the food you want, pay for them, then choose a restaurant that would cook the food according to your instructions. This is similar to what anton of anton blogs shared recently. http://anton.blogs.com/awesome/2005/12/the_perfect_dam.html

However, the Dampa in Ortigas had better food. The sinigang was delicious and so were the other dishes. They also had a stage where I suppose a live band could play but on that weeknight, they simply projected a video of a Beyonce concert on a screen. I enjoyed the experience so much that our family just had to experience it first-hand.

We went to the Original Dampa in Paranaque because it was nearer to our place. We first went to the market and got live crabs, and other shellfish. Total bill came to P700+. We then went to Aling Tonya's resto because this was the resto Tita Luday and I ate at in Ortigas. The Sucat Dampa is smaller and simpler in terms of design but I surmise that this is because the place was originally a no-frills market and carinderia where poor folks could come to have fresh seafood. The concept took off and evolved into airconditioned restaurants which was eventually copied in other places.

Let me start off by saying the food was delicious. There really is nothing better than fresh seafood!

We had a huge bowl of halaan soup with ginger and chili leaves...

Emote na emote! Here's Twinx capturing what no words can say about hot soup on a rainy evening...

We also had shrimps and scallops cooked with butter and garlic...And of course, huge steamed crabs like what we had in Silangang Nayon. The crabmeat had a sweet, succulent flavor that still makes my mouth water.The total bill for having the food cooked + rice and soda cost us P500. Very affordable! This is an experience we are definitely including in our "Next time you're in the Philippines" plan for our balikbayan relatives!